By Teresa L. Benns
CENTER — For the past several months, Colorado Public Radio personality Nate Minor has visited with Center residents and other individuals while researching the origins of a newly published book, co-authored by longtime political activist Jennie Sanchez.
The book’s other author, former nun, now Boulder attorney Shelley Wittevrongel, teamed with Sanchez to pen the work, Center, Colorado, on sale at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Center-Colorado-Cuenta-Shelley-Wittevrongel/dp/0997680938)  Wittevrongel has defended Sanchez and her organization in several court battles over the years.  
In Minor’s report on his investigation, released last Tuesday, he explained how Sanchez got her start as an activist in Center by defending her little brother, then continued to fight racism in the town, a battle that went on for decades.
“If you end there, it’s an inspiring story of civil rights and self-determination,” Minor commented. “But life in Center is more complicated than that. Because while the story of Center is about confronting racism, it’s also about what happens when those without power get it— and don’t let go.”
Through numerous artful interviews, Minor draws out the story behind the story in Center, adding much to the history of racial struggles in the town. While what he is told by Sanchez supporters does not always reflect the entire truth, what is revealed in the interviews sheds much light on past events and the true motivation of all those working to eradicate prejudices in Center.
Sanchez and her supporters had the backing of fellow activists hailing from Denver, including Denver’s future mayor Frederico Pena and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, founder of the Latino movement, Crusade for Justice. They also include local politicians Ken and John Salazar. There also was Cesar Chavez, the lettuce strike leader, who visited Center to rally Hispanics to his cause. One Center resident reports that Chavez met with Malcolm X and his black nationalist supporters at a Center residence during one of those visits.  
There is no denying that many Hispanics emigrating to the U.S. prior to the 1960s faced what seemed insurmountable obstacles, including racial prejudice, but also poverty and an educational system that then was not equipped to deal with English language learners as it is today. Like many immigrants from other nations before them, who also faced religious and other brands of discrimination, they persevered and won.
But instead of celebrating the victory, it seems the Center faction focused instead on gaining the upper hand and reversing the status quo — permanently.
Several references by Sanchez and her friends are made in Minor’s article regarding the extent of prejudice in the town. Sanchez claims “Mejicanos” (her term) were totally segregated and treated like criminals by area Anglo farmers. There were bad conditions at some farms, Center Housing Director Audrey Chavez related, and pay for unskilled labor was low (about $1.35 per hour in the early 1970s; semi-skilled wages at that time ran about $1.75).
Retired Colorado State Patrol officer David Pacheco remembers how Hispanics were only allowed to visit swimming pools one day a week, and how embarrassed he was when dating a white girl after they visited a pool and he was refused admission. While prejudice against Hispanics was not as intense in most instances as it was against blacks, it was similar, Jennie Sanchez maintains.
But a business owner in town recalls that the discrimination was not just one-sided — whites could not attend the dances at the old White House back in the day without being run out, either.
Second-generation farmer Bob Felmlee told Minor that during those unsettled days, he remembers a group of Hispanic boys, on their way to visit relatives in the fields, passing by his house and waving their middle fingers at him. Felmlee claims race relations in the town were fine until Jennie Sanchez began organizing Hispanics.
Just in time for the mid-terms, the Center book is subtitled Su voto cuenta — your vote counts. It addresses discrimination when the issue is today as red-hot as ever, and no less potentially volatile than it was in the 1960s. Some of those in Center Minor spoke with warned that his report could stir up bad feeling at a time when many feel it has cooled off, at least to some extent.
But for Sanchez’s group, the old hurts appear to remain festering wounds that no amount of time or government amends will heal. Felmlee expressed his feelings on the matter in Minor’s article as follows: hate predominated: they didn’t want to work together to work things out.

To review the full CPR article, see link: https://center.cpr.org/

Part II, next week: The lettuce strike, shifts in town politics and conflicting reports